A8B. The Sun in the World of the Dead.
.16.-.19.21.23.28.52.55.59.60.62.64.
As the sun sets behind the horizon, it shines on the anthropomorphic inhabitants of the underworld – the dead, dwarfs, etc.
Germans (Hanover), Ugarit, Raminjeri, Lakher, Chan (Mishmi), Toda, Poles, Ukrainians (Podolia, Volyn), Russians (Orlovskaya), Armenians, mountain Totonacs, Mazatecs, Tzotzil, Tzeltal, mestizos Soconusco, Nonama, Tunebo, Colorado, Macuna, Desana, Barasana, Mundurucu.
Western Europe. Germans (Hanover) [someone steals peas at night; a neighbor advises a peasant to surround the field with a rope and then rush in shouting and waving a whip; the dwarfs run, catch on the rope, and some of them lose their invisibility cloaks; this is what happened; the dwarfs ask to let them go, promising much gold, only let the man come before sunrise; the man detained the latter and began to ask when the sun rose among the dwarfs; he admitted that it was at midnight; the man took workers and before midnight rode up in a cart to the rock where the dwarfs lived; he heard them singing about how their sun rose at midnight; the man knocked, the dwarfs opened the door and ordered a barely alive nag to be harnessed to the cart; the man agreed, intending to feed the nag to the dogs; at the house he saw that there were gold nuggets in the cart; one grabbed it, after which everything disappeared; but this gold was enough even for children and grandchildren]: Colshorn, Colshorn 1854, No. 33: 98-100).
Western Asia. Ugarit [the close connection of the sun goddess Šapšu with the underworld is widely recognized]: Caquot 1959: 95–100, Gaster 1961: 227–228, Healey 1980, Lewis 1989: 35–46, Husser 1997, Pardee 2000: 69–70, Kutter 2008: 21–209, Krebernik 2013: 206; Ugarit [when Baʕlu dies, it is Šapšu who accompanies his sister ʕAnat on her descent into the nether world (Ɂaṯr bʕl nrd b Ɂarṣ || ʕmh trd nrt Ɂilm špš 'After Baʕlu we shall go down to the earth || With him Šapšu, the Luminary of the gods, shall descend') and (1.6 i 7–9) and then helps to carry his body to Mount Ṣapānu for burial (tšmʕ nrt Ɂilm špš || tšɁu ɁalɁiyn bʕl || l ktp ʕnt k tšth 'Šapšu, the Luminary of the gods, obeys || She lifts the mighty Baʕlu || On the shoulders of ʕAnat indeed she places him', 1.6 i 13–15)]; Ugarit [in the hymn to Shapsh that concludes the epic cycle about Balu (1.6. vi 45–53), the Sun goddess is explicitly presented as the ruler of the shades of the dead (špš rpɁim tḥtk || špš tḥtk Ɂilnym || ʕdk Ɂilm hn mtm 'Šapšu, you rule the RapaɁūma || Šapšu, you rule the divine ones || In your entourage are the gods || Even the (divinized) dead')]: Ayali-Darshan 2020b: 81–84, Lewis 1997: 36, Kutter 2008: 173–184, Pardee 1997: 273, Wiggins 1996: 337.
Australia. Ramindjeri (Encounter Bay) [The Sun is a woman; after sunset she passes the villages of the dead; people step aside to let her pass; they give her a red kangaroo skin in which the Sun rises at dawn]: Clarke 1997: 133 (=Waterman 1987, no. 156: 30).
Melanesia. Melpa (mbowamb) [where the sky and the earth meet on the horizon, the Earthquake People live underground (author's comment: = world of the dead); on the horizon the feet of the sky go underground and form a huge rock, which the Earthquake People push and make it shake, so that the earth trembles; the Earthquake People say that our earth is above them, and below them is the sky; in the middle of the earth is a huge pillar on which the earth rests; the Earthquake People grab hold of it and shake it; we call those living below us the Earthquake People, and ourselves human beings; but they call us Taewamb - beings above; the Sun and the Moon rise in the east of the sky of men and move west; there they pass into the sky of the Earthquake People and travel from west to east]: Vicedom 1977, no. 14: 17-18.
Tibet - North-East India. Lakher [the Sun is female, lives in the east; small strong black dwarfs open the gates for the Sun before dawn; the fleas hear this sound, begin to bite the pigs, they rub against the posts, wake up the poultry, the roosters wake up the people; at night the Sun shines in the world of the dead]: Parry 1932: 487; chan [black dwarfs open copper doors for the Sun in the morning; they have no anus, they feed on the smell of food]: Parry 1932: 487; (cf. mishmi (taraon) [there were two Suns, they shone in turns, people and animals died; a man caught and killed one Sun; the Moon shines half in the world of people, half in the world of the dead; a tree blocks its light, so it is cold]: Elwin 1958b, no. 26: 62).
South Asia. {It is clear from the text that our sun also illuminates the world of the dead. It may be assumed that it shines there at night, although this is not directly stated}. Toda [a woman gave birth to a gourd; the couple said that their child was stillborn; on the funeral pyre the gourd exploded, the boy flew out, fell into a tree; his parents picked him up; this is Kwoto; people did not believe that he was a god; then he hooked a stone chain around the sun, tied it to a tree; it became dark on earth and in the world of the dead; var.: first he hooked it with an iron, apparently also a bronze chain, but they melted; the sun sat on a buffalo, K. tied the buffalo; the gods asked him to release the sun, he did, he was recognized as the most powerful of the gods]: Rivers 1906: 203-207.
Central Europe. Poles [after sunset the sun continues its journey underground, illuminating the underworld (Southern and Eastern Slavs), shines on the dead (common Slavic {not confirmed by anything!}); at sunrise the souls of the dead (Poles) or devils (Ukrainians) push the sun, and at sunset they stop it]: Chekha 2014: 103; Ukrainians (Podolia, Vinnitsa district) [When the sun goes across the sky, we have day at this time, but when it goes down, you can even reach it with your hand; finally, it hides behind a mountain, and then night comes for us, and for other people who live underground, it is day. Having passed underground, the sun appears to us again, but it cannot come out of there by its own power, and devils roll it out, and with its heat, it burns a large number with each exit. There is such a story. The gentleman had a house in which no one wanted to live. A poor man asked to go in, the gentleman allowed it. There was a devil in the house, they lived together for a long time. One day the devil said that it was his turn to roll out the sun. If it burned down, another devil would come and tell him. One day he came and said that the owner of the house had burned down and now everything went to the man]: Chubinsky 1872: 4 (= Bulashev 1909: 293-294); Ukrainians (Podolia, Ushitsky district) [the setting sun goes down into the sea; there is another world underground, which the sun illuminates and it becomes day there, but night here; when the sun approaches the east, a thousand devils "shatans" lift it up, get burned and wave their hands; from those thousand drops a thousand devils again arise and everything repeats]: Chubinsky 1872: 11; Ukrainians (Volyn, Zhitomir district) [The sun lives in the seas and rises from there. At sunrise, countless numbers of devils lift it up with poles, since they cannot live in the seas and rivers at night because the sun is there. The sun comes out from under the earth and runs along the surface of the visible sky, goes into the earth and makes its way underground for the whole night]: Chubinsky 1972: 7; Russians (Orlovskaya; REM archive) [at first God ordered the sun and moon to shine together and only during the day; animals and birds complained, since they could not find food at night; then God ordered the sun to shine during the day, and at night to illuminate half of the cold world where the dead live; since it is cold there, when the sun rises in the morning, it is also cold; there is no direct data on the localization of the world of the dead, however, “in a number of provinces” (Vyatka, Ryazan) the sun moves underground at night {but does it shine for the dead there? the moon is not mentioned further}]: Ostrovsky 2002: 120.
Caucasus – Asia Minor. Armenians [during its nightly journey the sun crosses the underground sea and illuminates the world of the dead]: Ananikian 1925: 50.
Mesoamerica. Highland Totonacs [dwarfs in the east and west of the world hide underground from the heat of the passing sun]: Harvey, Kelly 1969: 671; Kelly 1966: 399; Mazatec [small, dark, curly-haired people live in the nether world at sunrise; their skin is darkened by the heat because the sun passes close to them at night; they wear no clothes and are rich because the sun gives them gold]: Incháustegui 1977: 34, 39; Tzotzil : Köhler 1977b (San Pablo) [underground dwarfs too weak to work; feed on the smell of food; protect themselves from the heat of the passing sun by covering their heads and necks with clay]: 17; Laughlin 1977 (Chamula), no. 24 [the dwarfs load a rabbit with their luggage like a mule, and it slides off its back; if it stays on its back, the world will turn upside down; when the sun passes by the dwarfs, they put on clay hats; they want to go out into our world], 80 [in the lower world, the sun is very hot; when it passes there, the dwarfs put on clay hats to save themselves]: 151, 254; Vogt 1969 [underground live dwarfs, former inhabitants of the earth who perished during the flood; the sun passes close to them and they protect their heads from the heat with clay hats]: 298; 1970 [at noon, the sun stops to see how things are in Zinacantan; at sunset it passes close to the sea and the water in it boils; at night it passes between our world and the lower world; : The dwarfs are hot there, they cover their heads with clay hats]: 4; Tzeltal : Hermitte 1970 [dark-skinned dwarfs live on the other side of the earth; wear clay hats to protect themselves from the heat of the sun passing close to them]: 32; Ventur 1982 [drag the sun's cart]: xvi; Mestizos of Soconusco [a man wants to see the sun, flies to the sunrise in the form of an eagle; there the dwarfs invite him to their cave in the center of the earth; they help him collect the sun's gold on the seashore; a greedy man coughs on them, they fall, he carries off all the gold alone; the load is too heavy, he turns into a vulture; the dwarfs bring some of the gold to his poor wife and children; they place some underground in the roots of the corn; that is why the ears are golden]: Navarrete 1966, no. 5: 426-427.
Northern Andes. Nonama [two men were born from a woman's leg; at night they turned into waura ("wooden dolls"), retaining human appearance, killed people, drank blood; asked their mother who killed their father; Snake ; killed all the snakes in the forest; El Sierpe (a giant snake); sailed on a raft to Sierpe, but the guacamayo warned her, she crawled away; the brothers put firewood on the raft, the snake swallowed it; they put a pole between the jaws, made a fire in the belly; the snake was half dead, one came out through the anus, ended up in the lower world, nothing is known about him; the other through the mouth, continued to suck blood; the sky was close to the earth; the man made clothes from plant fluff, took off; at sunrise a woodpecker flew out, hit him in the face; the man fell, but managed to scar the face of the moon; fell where the sun sets; a boy was playing on the beach, gave him some fruit from the caimito tree, said that his father owned it, he would be there today; this is the Sun; a white man came, wearing a golden hat; promised to take the man home; the boy throws the fruit into the water, the fish ate it; distracted the fish so that they would not eat the Sun; the Sun and the man dived into the underworld; the Sun left him at the hut, promised to pick him up on the way back ; sinculos (people without anus) said that the kuna wanted to kill them; the man began to make a bow and arrows; the kuna turned out to be shrimp; now the "Englishmen"; these are crayfish; the man explained that in his world these enemies are eaten; he went to relieve himself, two boys asked to make anuses for them, died; the Sun brought the man to earth; the man questioned his dead brother-in-law, who replied that they could not cure him; the people decided to kill the newcomer so that he would not drink more blood; they pounded corn, mixed it with water, doused it at night, the man turned into a stone; it was broken, the fragments turned into mosquitoes, those that fell into the water turned into leeches]: Wassen 1935, No. 8: 133-137; tunebo [the upper world is white, the lower world is red, from their mixing the middle world arose - blue, in which there is more of the lower, and yellow, in which there is more of the upper; the earth is blue, on it people live, and under it - the inhabitants of the lower world; when the sun sets behind the horizon, it shines on those lower people, and when it is day for us, it is night for them]: Osborn 1995: 73-74.
Ecuador. Colorado [in the lower world, where the Sun is at night , live dwarfs, everything is small there; in the sky live giants, everything is huge there]: Wavrin 1937: 515-516; (cf. Kayapa [the dwarfs pa'Ca'mbele live at the opening from which the Sun rises, and have become small from its heat]: Barrett 1925(2): 353).
NW Amazonia. Macuna , Barasana , Desana [the underworld is inhabited by the dead (Bohori masá among the Macuna, Bohori riaga among the Barasana); these are not living dead people on earth, but rather a special category of spirits; and somewhere there, at night, the sun floats from west to east]: Trupp 1987: 82–83 (also Reichel-Dolmatoff 1968: 34f; Torres Laborde 1969: 101); Tatuyo [underground, there is a world of the dead through which flows an ominous river; at night, the sun floats along the underground river from west to east]: Bidou 1972: 49–50.
Central Amazonia. Munduruku [below our world there is another; there also live the Parintintin, Munduruku, and Negroes; the exit from there to the earth is near the village of Uakupari (where the cultural hero Karusakaybë lived, where the first people came to the earth; shamans penetrate there; others say that there is a plain under the earth; there are no mountains, sun, fire, or plants; still others say that there is a normal world there, only the sun shines when it is night for us]: Kruse 1952: 932.